


my nightstand in the back

by peachgloss



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Airports, M/M, Texting, donghyuck is oblivious, half text fic, peppa pig discourse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 19:32:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14796590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachgloss/pseuds/peachgloss
Summary: donghyuck and yukhei accidentally swap suitcases.





	my nightstand in the back

**Author's Note:**

> yes i banged this out in thirty minutes after reading hyuckheis' newest fic. what about it.  
> dedicated to aun, who read this n gave me advice thank u legend  
> title is from taylor swift's delicate!

**** It’s four-thirty in the morning, and Donghyuck just wants to go home and sleep. Instead, he’s stuck in a crowd of people all impatiently waiting for the same thing. Generally, the atmosphere of an airport is not conducive to a good mood, and even less so at the asscrack of dawn.

Donghyuck can hear the people around him getting restless and impatient, shuffling their carry-ons around and shushing their kids when they whine. He’s about to fall asleep standing up when he gets unceremoniously shoved to the side. Fortunately, he manages to catch himself before he falls.

“Hey,” Donghyuck protests, looking up to see a hassled looking boy shoot him an apologetic glance, mumbling something unintelligible around the bagel half shoved in his mouth. Even through the haze of almost-sleep, this boy is easily the cutest Donghyuck’s ever seen, and he considers himself a connoisseur of cute boys.

Cute Boy’s brows wrinkle, like he’s trying to figure out some way to apologize to Donghyuck nonverbally. His face lights up as he takes Donghyuck’s hand and presses something into it, then runs off in search of his luggage.

Wow.

Distracted by the conveyor belt, which has started moving, Donghyuck absentmindedly slips the little flower petal into his innermost pocket, where it won’t get crushed. Running more on fumes than on fuel, he grabs the first bag that even vaguely looks like his own and makes a break for it, apologizing to the people he pushes aside on the way.

It’s only later, after a good nap, that Donghyuck realizes he’d grabbed the wrong bag.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he whines, rummaging through the contents of someone else’s bag in frustration. “There must be an ID in here somewhere.”

“Shouldn’t you check to see if there’s a phone number on the luggage tag first?” Mark points out, looking unimpressed.

Donghyuck blinks. That might be a better starting point, but there’s no way he’s letting Mark know he’s right. Instead, he stands up, collects the swapped bag with a huff, and stalks into his room.

“You know I’m right,” Mark calls after him, but doesn’t make a move to follow. Good — that means Donghyuck can follow his advice without looking like he’s giving in.

To his delight, Donghyuck does in fact find a number written on the luggage tag. He tries calling it, but it goes straight to voicemail, so he opts for a series of texts.

**to: mysterious bag person**

_ hi! i think i switched bags with you at incheon international? _

_ uhh hopefully you live around seoul so we can meet up to trade back sometime soon! _

_ please text me back as soon as possible ^__^ _

With that, Donghyuck turns off his phone and climbs into bed again. He hasn’t gotten nearly enough rest.

—

Donghyuck doesn’t check his phone again until Mark drags him out to dinner, nearly nine hours later. He’d protested that he needed sleep more than food at that point, but his roommate had insisted that he needed to wake up for a little bit to adjust to jet lag.

That’s how Donghyuck finds himself sitting in a McDonald’s waiting for the free wifi to register on his phone.

“This is almost offensively broke college student,” he points out to Mark as his friend sets down two trays of dollar menu delicacies. “I’m even mooching off their wifi because my data’s so shitty.”

“Being frugal is a good life skill,” Mark pouts, squirting ketchup onto his cheeseburger. “You’ll be thanking me for teaching you how to save when you graduate.”

This is an argument they’ve had multiple times, in many different forms. They’re only a year apart, but Mark endlessly lords it over Donghyuck that he’s always one step ahead - graduating middle school, getting a driver’s license, and graduating high school were all opportunities to make fun of Donghyuck.

“Not this again,” Donghyuck complains. “You  _ literally _ just graduated, you definitely don’t get to lord your ‘superior life experiences’ over me again.”

“Life’s hard out there,” Mark says, spreading his hands in a what-can-I-do gesture. “You mature quickly once you’re out of college and in the real world.”

“Literally fuck off,” Donghyuck says, tapping at his phone screen impatiently. “Why won’t my phone connect? This is so annoying.”

“You gotta make sacrifices,” Mark continues rambling. “One of those sacrifices is connection speed, Donghyuck. You know, when you get out of school, the first thing that goes is internet speed.”

“You  _ literally still live on campus _ ,” Donghyuck hisses. “You’re still using the school’s wifi, for—” He cuts himself off with a noise of accomplishment as his phone finally decides to connect.

Mark peers over his shoulder curiously as the notifications come in. The final count is forty-five unread messages, mostly from the group chat they share, discussing the comeback of a girl group they like. Donghyuck taps off a quick response, something generic about loving the song.

He thumbs out of the group chat page and blinks at the other unread messages. There are three replies to his original message, all sent about an hour ago.

**from: mysterious bag person**

_ um _

_ i... kind of live in china? i was at incheon to transfer flights _

_ is there anything super important in your bag you can’t miss for a long time? because i could ship it over if you want _

Taking a mental account of the contents of his swapped bag, Donghyuck concludes that no, there isn’t anything in there he really needs—he likes to travel light, anyway.

**to: mysterious bag person**

_ no!! i’m good without the stuff in there until we manage to meet in person to swap _

_ shipping is expensive anyway!! is there anything you need? _

**from: mysterious bag person**

_ nope! just please don’t look in it, there’s some embarrassing stuff in there _

_ oh... i just realized that will make you look... please pretend i never said that _

**to: mysterious bag person**

_ don’t worry! just tell me there’s nothing illegal in there and i won’t look _

**from: mysterious bag person**

_ um... _

**to: mysterious bag person**

_ HUH? _

**from: mysterious bag person**

_ i mean technically... it’s not illegal in korea though! so i think you’re good _

**to: mysterious bag person**

_ now i’m curious lol _

**from: mysterious bag person**

_ i mean it’s not too bad, just stuff i’d rather not a stranger know _

**to: mysterious bag person**

_ let’s be friends! then can i know? _

**from: mysterious bag person**

_ i see what you really want from this relationship _

_ my SECRETS _

**to: mysterious bag person**

_ damn straight _

_ but i also think you seem pretty cool! and your korean is very good hehe _

**from: mysterious bag person**

_ thank you! i lived there for a while actually _

_ wait what’s your name? _

**to: mysterious bag person**

_ i’m donghyuck!! what’s yours _

**from: mysterious bag person**

_ yukhei _

_ it’s nice to meet you, donghyuck! _

**[contact name changed: yukhei]**

—

“Are you going to get your bag back?” Mark wonders as they walk back to campus, Donghyuck typing away on his phone. “Hey—watch out!”

Distracted by his phone, Donghyuck had almost walked into a pole.

“Thanks,” he mumbles distractedly, giggling at a joke Yukhei had made.

“Oh my god,” Mark complains, steering Donghyuck around a woman walking her dog. “Does it really take this long to hash out a plan to meet?”

“He lives in  _ China _ ,” Donghyuck explains, looking up from his phone for the first time in fifteen minutes of walking. “We’re making plans to hopefully meet up the next time we travel.”

“Are you just going to keep talking to him until then?” Mark says skeptically. “Usually you ghost people within a day.”

“Hey!” Donghyuck protests, shoving at his friend. “Listen, that’s not my fault. I just forget to reply, and when I remember to it’s too late to without it being awkward.”

“You have a point,” Mark shrugs. “But are you sure that won’t happen with him? Won’t it be awkward to meet after you ghost him?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Donghyuck says breezily, waving a hand. “He doesn’t seem like the type of person who’d let a conversation get awkward.”

And really, he doesn’t—he and Yukhei have talked about five different subjects so far in their fifteen-minute conversation, and it hasn’t felt stilted once. Donghyuck can’t remember connecting so instantly with a person since he’d met Mark all the way back in first grade.

“Whatever you say,” Mark says, steering Donghyuck clear of a fire hydrant. “But can you tell him you have to go for, like, five minutes? It’s getting kind of exhausting making sure you don’t kill yourself.”

Donghyuck heaves an exaggerated sigh, tapping out a response to Yukhei’s last message before he shoves his phone in his back pocket. “Hey,” he starts, an idea occurring to him, “do you think he’ll be mad if I peek in his bag?”

Mark blinks. “Probably?” he tries, sounding unsure of why Donghyuck is even asking. “Please don’t,” he tacks on. “There could be personal stuff in there.”

“Don’t worry about it!” Donghyuck says. “He just said it’s embarrassing and illegal in China, not anything bad. There’s probably just clothes in there, other than that.”

“Why do you want to look at his  _ clothes _ ?” Mark asks, looking a little weirded out. Donghyuck isn’t sure why—he’s done stranger things.

“You can tell a lot about a person from their fashion sense,” Donghyuck says patronizingly. “I need to know how he dresses before I become his friend, you feel?”

“I don’t feel,” Mark says bemusedly, “and yet I understand.”

When they get back to their apartment, Donghyuck makes a beeline for his room. Mark hangs back, clearly a little morally conflicted over looking at the belongings of a stranger.

“Are you coming or not?” Donghyuck calls over his shoulder as he opens the door to his room. “I mean, I’m going to look whether you come or not, so you might as well investigate with me.”

“Calling this an investigation makes it sound so much better than it actually is,” Mark grouses, hurrying to follow his best friend. “But I do kind of want to know what he has that’s illegal only in China.”

“Guess we’ll find out,” Donghyuck says, unzipping Yukhei’s bag and, with only a faint pang of guilt, dumping out the contents.

At first, he doesn’t see anything special. Either Yukhei’s dress sense is pretty formal or he’d been on a trip for work, judging from the relatively high-end pressed shirts and pants he can see in there. Donghyuck impatiently moves those aside, catching a whiff of a strangely familiar cologne, and paws through the remainder. There’s a notebook which Donghyuck puts aside—there could be personal thoughts in there, and he isn’t that much of a jerk.

Donghyuck also finds a half-eaten box of chocolates, which he quickly polishes off without feeling too guilty. They’d just expire if he didn’t eat them, he reasons, with Yukhei all the way in China. Besides, he’d had snacks in his bag as well, and he’s certain Yukhei will end up eating  _ those _ .

“Yukhei has good taste in chocolates,” he comments offhandedly, before picking up his phone to text Yukhei that very thought.

“He’s going to know,” Mark hisses from where he’s crouched over a pile of clothes, sorting and folding them neatly. “Won’t he be mad?”

Donghyuck shrugs. “Maybe, but I didn’t even read his notebook. Honestly, he should be grateful.”

Mark blinks, picking up the worn leather journal. “Um, Donghyuck, this is written in Chinese. I don’t think he’ll be grateful you didn’t read something you can’t understand.”

“The sentiment was there,” Donghyuck says a little defensively. “What else is in here?” he wonders, changing the subject.

“I think that might be—” Mark starts, before his eyes light up. “Oh my god,” he squeaks, voice hitting an embarrassing pitch.

“What?” Donghyuck gasps, looking around the pile of Yukhei’s stuff frantically. “Oh my god,” he repeats as he spots what had made Mark so excited.

“Yukhei is so smart,” Mark gushes, gingerly picking up the limited-edition collector’s edition of  _ Peppa Pig: The Pet Competition _ . “Hyuck, can we please watch this tonight?”

“You really want to watch fucking  _ Peppa Pig _ for movie night?” Donghyuck says, deadpan.

“I mean, I definitely don’t want to watch fucking Peppa Pig,” Mark snarks. “That’d be wrong on so many levels.”

Donghyuck rolls his eyes to the ceiling and wonders why he’s friends with such an idiot. To distract himself from Mark reverently running his hands over the DVD case, he picks up his phone again to find several unread messages from Yukhei.

**from: yukhei**

_ donghyuck PLEASE _

_ oh my god you found it didn’t you... _

_ i swear it’s for my niece _

_ she loves peppa pig a lot but it recently got banned so... as i was going out of the country anyway i just decided to get her a dvd version _

**to: yukhei**

_ likely story _

_ my roommate wants to watch it for movie night... this is all your fault _

_ oh feel free to eat my snacks by the way _

**from: yukhei**

_ IT’S THE TRUTH _

_ don’t worry i already did! they were really good _

**to: yukhei**

_ i’m glad someone’s enjoying them if i can’t... _

_ is it the same way for you and your peppa pig? _

**from: yukhei**

_ I SWEAR I DON’T ENJOY PEPPA PIG _

**to: yukhei**

_ why’d you get the limited edition collector’s version then? _

_ seems sus... _

**from: yukhei**

_... _

**to: yukhei**

_ AHA _

**from: yukhei**

_ okay fine _

_ maybe i dabble a little bit _

**to: yukhei**

_ dabble? what does that entail _

**from: yukhei**

_...maybe a collection of around fifty _

**to: yukhei**

_ FIFTY _

_ i just told mark that and i think he just dry orgasmed _

_ oh wait is that too weird to say yet _

**from: yukhei**

_ dw i’ve heard worse _

_ mark seems pretty smart maybe you should follow his lead _

**to: yukhei**

_ well we’re watching your dvd for movie night i guess so we’ll see! _

**from: yukhei**

_ i know you’re going to love it :   ) _

—

“Oh my god,” Donghyuck fumes, hands balled into fists. “I can’t believe fucking Mrs. Hamster would do that to Peppa, she is a full-grown adult, what does she need an award for best pet for?”

“Weren’t you just saying that Peppa Pig is dumb—” Mark starts.

“And her accent is so annoying, like fuck off already, at least Peppa called her out in the end,” Donghyuck continues ranting in the same breath. “That’s just so... ridiculous.”

“Well, did you like it?” Mark wonders.

About to respond reflexively with a denial, Donghyuck pauses and considers the episode they’d just watched. The plot had actually been alright, and any show that managed to make him feel so strongly about one of the characters  _ had _ to be at least decent, right?

“Wow,” he sums up, blinking in surprise. “I... actually didn’t hate it. I wouldn’t be opposed to watching more.”

“Bet,” Mark says, trying to smirk but ending up grimacing.

“Please never say that again,” Donghyuck requests politely as he pulls up the next episode.

Three hours later, both boys are crying and they’ve watched approximately thirty-six episodes in total. Two bags of microwave popcorn have been demolished, and Mark flicks a kernel off the keyboard before bursting anew into tears.

“Fuck,” Donghyuck says eloquently, clutching onto his best friend for comfort. “Mr. Dinosaur... I’m so sorry George...”

“He doesn’t deserve this,” Mark agrees, sniffling a little as he wipes away his tears. Next to them, Donghyuck’s phone buzzes, and he picks it up a little reluctantly as he scrubs at his eyes.

**from: yukhei**

_ so... what did u think _

**to: yukhei**

_ FUCK OFF _

**from: yukhei**

_ is that an “i enjoyed it so much, thank you yukhei for introducing me to it?” _

**to: yukhei**

_ why would u do this to me _

_ george was so sad when he thought mr. dinosaur was lost :(( _

**from: yukhei**

_ HOW MANY DID U WATCH _

**to: yukhei**

_ too many. _

_ and yet not enough. _

**from: yukhei**

_ u can never have enough peppa pig! _

**to: yukhei**

_ mark says fuck u by the way _

_ we’re both crying _

**from: yukhei**

_ aww that’s really endearing _

_ u guys are cute! _

**to: yukhei**

_ thanks i guess _

**from: yukhei**

_ for real though i like talking to you a lot _

_ let’s keep doing it! _

**to: yukhei**

_...yeah _

_ me too. _

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/izcned) // [curious cat](https://www.curiouscat.me/elixirs)


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